CURRENT STATUS OF THREATS TO THE HAMLYNS MONKEY AND ITS BAMBOO - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

ASSESSMENT OF CONSERVATION EFFORTS, INCENTIVES, AND THE CURRENT STATUS OF THREATS TO THE HAMLYN’S MONKEY AND ITS BAMBOO HABITAT IN NYUNGWE NATIONAL PARK, RWANDA

Date: 28 Feb 2018 Research seminar at CoEB, Huye Project leader: Methode MAJYAMBERE

Origin of our work

• I tried to sent a similar topic once to funders; it was not selected
• I used a similar topic to apply for CEPF-FFI workshop, 2016
• Then and later, I identified the funder that was most suitable
• Later I developed the present work, the one Rufford funded

Problem, motivation, and purpose

• The problem is illegal bamboo

harvesting from the Park by local communities

• Puts in critical conservation

challenge the vulnerable monkey,

• C. hamlyni
• Past actions did not yield

sustainable results;

• Especially revealing is the incentive

mechanism for bamboo propagation in community’s woodlots

• They were not even evaluated

Problem, motivation, and purpose

• The vulnerable species needs urgent

conservation efforts

• Bamboo habitat needs to be

sustainably conserved (Nyungwe) or managed (in communities)

• People need bamboo and such

traditional habits need to be well understood with focus on livelihoods

• The purpose was to evaluate past

actions that addressed the problem of illegal bamboo harvesting, the impact of incentives put in place for that purpose, and current threats to bamboo habitat

Timeline, implementers, and stakeholders

• 10 months; including 8 months
• f field work and 2 months for

workshop sessions

• Project started in July 2017
• Implementers:
• BEST, with M. Majyambere

leading

• One project assistant
• One local guide & collaborator
• Three students, Biology, UR

Timeline, implementers, and stakeholders

• Other stakeholders:
• RDB, esp. RDB’s research

partner + Community officer + Park rangers

• WCS, esp. in charge of

community programs

• Local leaders (sector, cells,

villages)

• Cooperatives (esp. with

purpose of Nyungwe conservation)

• Local communities at large

Study design and methodologies

• We focused on two sectors

adjacent to Nyungwe: Ruheru and Busanze

• In Ruheru sector we

selected 3 cells; and 2 cells were selected for Busanze sector

• In each cell we found 5

villages, except one where were found 6 villages

• In total interviews were

prepared to 156 households

• Research subjects provided to students covered the whole work:

1) Assessing conservation efforts and actions on the Hamlyn’s monkey and the bamboo habitat in Nyungwe National Park, 2) Impact and efficiency evaluation of the incentive strategies to reduce illegal bamboo collection threatening the Hamlyn’s monkey in Nyungwe National Park, and 3) Status of current threats to the Hamlyn’s monkey and the bamboo habitat in Nyungwe National Park.

Study design and methodologies

• Surveys were made in the fields (both

communities and in forest)

• Visits to the bamboo-planted areas;

records of growth and regeneration status

• f bamboo; number and age of bamboo

cuts; mappings of bamboo clumps

• In forest we collected data on threats

during 6 different days; 30 plots were covered; each plot being of a square of 20m x 20 m

Study design and methodologies

• Information from local leaders and documentation
• Household interviews: chosen at random from marital data of cells
• We conducted also focus group discussion
• Surveys of cooperatives; their actions and plans were inquired

Results, observations, and implications

1) Assessing conservation efforts and actions on the Hamlyn’s monkey and the bamboo habitat in Nyungwe National Park

• About 8 active groups (5 community cooperatives and 3 clubs

based on schools) in Ruheru sector and 3 cooperatives in Busanze sector are concerned with Nyungwe protection

• They include the ones that promote conservation education, for

honeybee production, and for agricultural improvement

• Most interviewed people were subsistence farmers and their level
• f education was low, mainly ranging at the primary school level
• most people who need bamboo are of the poor category and

depend on it for subsistence; people claimed that they needed bamboo in their woodlots

• We realized that bamboo use was more prevalent in Busanze than

Ruheru sector

Results, observations, and implications

• Most people did not understand their role in protecting the Park;

they most feel that only some people have direct interest

• They simply mention that they play important roles in protecting the

park, but could almost never specify which role and how

• Most people knew about the actions to protect the park, but

especially after being a national park

• People most often mention that no new threats are happening to the

park; that it can happen only by accident!!

• Most people are hesitant when answering for the origin of bamboo

that is seen with people walking around; they argued that they were not concerned about knowing it

• Park bamboo is sold at cheaper price, and also most preferred
• Reports from the community will always be targeting neighbors of

Burundi as perpetrators of illegal activities in bamboo habitat!!!

Results, observations, and implications

2) Impact and efficiency evaluation of the incentive strategies to reduce illegal bamboo collection threatening the Hamlyn’s monkey in Nyungwe National Park

• A project under PAB and REMA once in 2005-2007 planted large

spaces on buffer zone with bamboo habitat; no bamboo is surviving at that place, if not only sparse bushy shoots

Results, observations, and implications

• We first realized that most planted

bamboo in agricultural fields did not have good yields

• Most bamboo thriving in community

fields is the one they had before bamboo propagation initiatives

• Bamboo from community’s woodlots is

much less used, compared to the needs witnessed everywhere, denying the fact that bamboo from the Park is less used than the people’s

• Few bamboo fields are possessed by

people who scarcely need using it

• NB: DATA ON THIS ACTIVITY ARE STILL

BEING COLLECTED

Results, observations, and implications

3) Status of current threats to the Hamlyn’s monkey and the bamboo habitat in Nyungwe National Park

• The very characteristic threat is illegal

bamboo cutting

• Near the bamboo habitat and inside are

found other threats, e.g. firewood collection, logging, snares, grazing

• Some stretches of intact bamboo still

exist but the habitat is much disturbed by human trails passing throughout

• On the bamboo harvested, most of parts

remain inside; bamboo culms are cut selectively and improperly

Results, observations, and implications

• Hamlyn’s monkeys are not visible; we could only hear their

movements once during all time we traveled in their area

• The place has also been suspected for insecurity; such suspicions

have long hampered the monitoring of the habitat

• We also found that bamboo shoots are not common in the habitat;

the underlying reasons remain for further exploration

Progress and perspectives

There were four different activities

• 1. Assessing the status and outcomes of conservation efforts (4

months)

• 2. Assessing the status and perceptions of incentives (2 months)
• 3. Status of current threats on Hamlyn’s monkeys and the bamboo

habitat (2 months)

• 4. Workshops and meetings (2 months)

Notice: For 1-3 data are being entered, not analyzed yet to provide figures and tables; so results indicated only general trends At present, we are left only with the activity 4 and few days of activities for surveys of the status of bamboo in community fields (activity 3) We were timely; we plan to covered those within 2 months to come We stay with hope that Rufford will fund a future project to continue

• ur efforts for conservation sustainability at the site

Acknowledgements

• Endless thanks to the Almighty for the health we all have today,

enabling us for this work, and for creating conservation

• Thanks to the all-important Rufford Foundation for enabling

conservation of Nyungwe’s bamboo and the C. hamlyni

• Thanks to FFI and CEPF for 2016 training on ‘Project development,

proposal writing and fundraising’

• Thanks to CoEB for organizing this seminar
• Thanks to RDB and WCS for collaborating
• Thanks to local leaders at the project area
• Thanks to all of you who encouraged us
• Thanks to all of you who attended this seminar

THANK YOU